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Objective. To study the reproductive outcomes of modified laparoscopic fimbrioplasty (MLF), a surgical technique designed to increase the working surface area of the fimbriated end of the fallopian tube. We postulated that an improvement in fimbrial function through MLF will improve reproductive outcomes.Design. Retrospective cohort study.Setting. Academic tertiary-care medical center.Patients. Women with minimal endometriosis or unexplained infertility, who underwent MLF during diagnostic laparoscopy (n=50) or diagnostic laparoscopy alone (n=87).Intervention. MLF involved gentle, circumferential dilatation of the fimbria and lysis of fimbrial adhesions bridging the fimbrial folds.Main Outcome Measures. The primary outcome was pregnancy rate and the secondary outcome was time to pregnancy.Results. The pregnancy rate for the MLF group was 40.0%, compared to 28.7% for the control group. The average time to pregnancy for the MLF group was 13 weeks, compared to 18 weeks for the control group. The pregnancy rate in the MLF group was significantly higher for patients ≤35 ys (51.5% versus 28.8%), but not for those >35 ys (17.6% versus 28.6%).Conclusion. MLF was associated with a significant increase in pregnancy rate for patients ≤35 ys.

The Special Issues series on social psychology of social change will provide a forum for research on the science and practice of interventions for social change that benefit individuals, organisations and society. This effort takes up Lewin's call for scientific research aimed towards solving social problems and generating new knowledge, but with a theory and practice of culture and cultural change at its centre. The effort elevates the dominant research approach in developing countries in Asia where there is more concern about opportunities for training and engaging in and publishing more applied work. The emphasis both on research excellence and on a holistic concern for society as central components for theorising about effective modes of realising social change in Asia and the Pacific is a long-term project that begins with the seven diverse articles in the special issue, which span different stages in the project — from clarifying its Asian philosophical basis, to empirical analysis of the problem and levers of change, to evaluation of the outcomes of action research.

It is claimed via analysis of Shu-Hsien Liu's seminal book Understanding Confucian Philosophy that contemporary Confucianism offers: (1) a set of ultimate concerns that can be used to guide life and scholarly endeavour; (2) an axiomatic world view, and a generative model of human nature that not only accords with empirical evidence, but is highly adaptive in organising society; (3) an epistemology that is appropriate for social science research on social change. These qualities suggest that contemporary Confucianism can inform psychological research in a manner that goes far deeper than merely describing popular tendencies among culturally Chinese people. It may be used in constructing a form of social science with depth and utility in addressing both practical and existential concerns of scholars and ordinary people in society that is not restricted to Chinese societies alone, but any society in need of inspiration in seeking to construct humanist ethics for research and governance.

Significance In a study including 17 societies, we found that people are motivated to trust and cooperate more with their ingroup, than harm the outgroup. Reputation-based indirect reciprocity may offset this ingroup favoritism, because we found that reputational concern universally increases cooperation with both ingroup and outgroup members. We also found that people who are dispositionally cooperative are less parochial and more universal in their cooperation. In a time of increasing parochialism in both domestic and international relations, our findings affirm us of the danger of the strong human universal toward parochial altruism. Yet, our findings suggest that in all societies, there exist people whose cooperation transcends group boundaries and provides a solution to combating parochialism: reputation-based indirect reciprocity., International challenges such as climate change, poverty, and intergroup conflict require countries to cooperate to solve these complex problems. However, the political tide in many countries has shifted inward, with skepticism and reluctance to cooperate with other countries. Thus, cross-societal investigations are needed to test theory about trust and cooperation within and between groups. We conducted an experimental study in 17 countries designed to test several theories that explain why, who, and where people trust and cooperate more with ingroup members, compared with outgroup members. The experiment involved several interactions in the trust game, either as a trustor or trustee. We manipulated partner group membership in the trust game (ingroup, outgroup, or unknown) and if their reputation was at stake during the interaction. In addition to the standard finding that participants trust and cooperate more with ingroup than outgroup members, we obtained findings that reputational concerns play a decisive role for promoting trust and cooperation universally across societies. Furthermore, men discriminated more in favor of their ingroup than women. Individual differences in cooperative preferences, as measured by social value orientation, predicted cooperation with both ingroup and outgroup members. Finally, we did not find support for three theories about the cross-societal conditions that influence the degree of ingroup favoritism observed across societies (e.g., material security, religiosity, and pathogen stress). We discuss the implications for promoting cooperation within and between countries.

Emergency department observation units (EDOUs) are used frequently for low-risk chest pain evaluations.The purpose of this study was to determine whether geriatric compared to non-geriatric patients evaluated in an EDOU for chest pain have differences in unscheduled 30-day re-presentation, length of stay (LOS), and use of stress testing.We conducted an exploratory, retrospective, cohort study at a single academic, urban ED of all adult patients placed in an EDOU chest pain protocol from June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015. Our primary outcome was any unscheduled return visits within 30 days of discharge from the EDOU. Secondary outcomes included EDOU LOS and stress testing. We used Wilcoxon non-parametric and χThere were 959 unique EDOU placements of geriatric (n = 219) and non-geriatric (n = 740) patients. Geriatric compared to non-geriatric patients had: no significant difference in unscheduled 30-day return visits after discharge from the EDOU (15.5% vs. 18.5%; p = 0.31); significantly longer median EDOU LOS (22.1 vs. 20.6 h; p 0.01) with a greater percentage staying longer than 24 h (42% vs. 29.1%; p 0.01). Geriatric patients had significantly fewer stress tests (39.7% vs. 51.4%; p 0.01), more of which were nuclear stress tests (78.2% vs. 39.5%; p 0.01).In this exploratory retrospective study, geriatric EDOU chest pain patients did not have an increased rate of re-presentation to the hospital within 30 days compared to non-geriatric patients. Geriatric patients had a longer EDOU LOS than non-geriatric patients. Geriatric patients in the EDOU had fewer stress tests, but more of those were nuclear stress tests.

Research on social representations (SR) of history within the field of social psychology may provide guidelines that can strengthen meta-cognitive competences in history teaching. This chapter reviews existing empirical research on SR of history in order to enrich the discussion on history education and the formation of political culture, first explaining how collective memory may be a result of history education. Then, theoretical and empirical evidence that may serve as guidelines for strengthening meta-cognitive competences in history education is reviewed, presenting biases that may exist in determining what is historically significant and explaining the importance of understanding historical continuity and change when learning history. Lastly, tools are presented that may enhance learning to identify multiple causes and consequences in history through perspective-taking. Some major implications and conclusions are considered.

To investigate the effect of empiric use of luteal phase progesterone supplementation to improve endometrial receptivity in women undergoing treatment with clomiphene citrate in combination with intrauterine insemination (CC-IUI).Retrospective cohort analysis.University fertility center.426 CC-IUI cycles from 292 patients with unexplained infertility.Patients were treated with micronized intravaginal progesterone 100 mg twice daily beginning approximately three days after CC-IUI.Clinical pregnancy per initiated cycle as defined by presence of fetal heart rate on ultrasound.Clinical pregnancy rate was higher in patients receiving luteal phase support compared to patients not receiving luteal phase support (odds ratio: 2.04; 95% confidence interval: 1.01-4.14) after adjusting for all factors in the analysis using a multivariate logistic regression model. Age at the start of the cycle, BMI and CC dose were not shown to have an effect on clinical pregnancy rates. Patients with endometrial lining (EML) thickness 6-8 mm and8 mm had increased clinical pregnancy rates compared to EML6 mm independent of luteal phase progesterone use. Patients who appear to receive the greatest benefit of progesterone supplementation are in the 6-8 mm EML cohort.Luteal phase progesterone supplementation in CC-IUI cycles can improve endometrial receptivity as judged by the improved clinical pregnancy rates as the primary outcome.

Critical junctures theory draws from complexity theory/dynamical systems theory to investigate how ethnically, religiously and ideologically defined communities interact and coexist within and between states defined on the basis of Westphalian principles. States are theorized as dynamical political systems identified by three system parameters: (1) a symbology—systems of symbolic meaning attached to and promoted by the state, (2) an identity space—the groups and group identities that vie for legitimacy and control of state apparatuses, and (3) a set of technologies—the institutions and technological means used by the state to maintain and reproduce itself. The system is thought to be located in an international political geography that provides initial starting conditions and system constraints. The system parameters are viewed as a family of variables rather than a single measure, and their operation is contingent upon specific actualizing conditions consistent with the philosophy of critical realism: this allows for both quantitative hypothesis–testing research and qualitative–hermeneutical work under a unified theoretical framework. The theory is illustrated by a Special Issue that spans historical case studies of Singapore and Turkey, history textbook analyses of the European Union, interviewing the institutional role of history teachers in transmitting Estonian national identity, the transformative ideological work of biblical narratives in Israeli state-building, and several papers that illustrate how social psychological phenomena can be located within the historical trajectories of evolving states.

This paper develops a theoretical framework inspired by complexity theory to assess trajectories of the post-colonial nation-state. Drawing on notions like singularities and critical junctures, initial conditions, and system parameters relevant to the meanings, constituencies, and technologies that determine nation-building trajectories, it shows that in the cases of Turkey, Indonesia/Yogyakarta, and New Zealand – new forms of cultural nationalism are emerging. In keeping with Mill's logic of difference, this convergent outcome despite the otherwise great divergence across the cases is suggestive of similar process afoot in the (re)imagination of the nation-state across the post-colonial and globalizing world more broadly. These emergent articulations, we show, are more inclusive of certain aspects of “indigenous” experience relevant to certain group identities, than earlier post-colonial nationalisms, while threatening to others.

Social representations of the historical past, anchored in historical experience and cultural values, play a motivational role for justifying collective behaviour. The First and Second World Wars (WWI and WWII) are the most remembered historical events around the world. The aim of the current study is to investigate, based on country-level data, the relationship between the country's role during the war, social development, cultural values and willingness to fight in a future war, and how social representations of WWII mediate these processes. The data from the World History Survey were collected from a total of 6628 university students from 36 countries. The results showed that ascribing WWII a progressive (UN creation, democracy) or technological-scientific explanation, but also perceiving WWII as a social catastrophe, prevailed more than beliefs justifying WWII (just and necessary war). Directly or indirectly victorious nations endorse legitimizing and positive representations of world wars more than defeated ones. The effects of hierarchical and collectivistic values and low social development on willingness to fight in a war are mediated by legitimizing social representations of WWII. Importantly, when controlled for socio-structural differences (human development index), the indirect effect of being a victorious nation in a war on willingness to fight through legitimizing representations of WWII was also significant. These findings suggest that social representations of WWII serve as anchors for determining the role of a nation in collective violence. Social representations legitimizing past collective violence seem to facilitate more positive attitudes towards potential future collective violence in victorious nations.

The Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) measures five universal moral foundations of Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, and Purity/sanctity. This study provided an independent test of the factor structure of the MFQ using Confirmatory Factor Analysis in a large New Zealand national probability sample (N = 3,994). We compared the five-factor model proposed by Moral Foundations Theory against alternative single-factor, two-factor, three-factor, and hierarchical (five foundations as nested in two second order factors) models of morality. The hypothesized five-factor model proposed by Moral Foundations Theory provided a reasonable fit. These findings indicate that the five-factor model of moral foundations holds in New Zealand, and provides the first independent test of the factor structure of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire.

Compared with the wealth of research accumulated on face-to-face social interactions, relatively little research has examined race talk within anonymous Web 2.0 mediums. We investigated online threaded comments on YouTube video clips of two race-related incidents involving New Zealand television presenter Paul Henry. Through thematic content analysis, thematic analysis, and discourse analysis, it was found that characteristics unique to Web 2.0 were associated with the appearance of old-fashioned racism and high-levels of obscenity (together with modern racism/symbolic racism). The hyper-low context of communication led to interpretive ambiguity; conversation sequences failed to follow Gricean maxims for cooperative communication, with most comments attracting no replies and the modal sequence being two turns. There was almost never resolution to a disagreement online: rather there was points-scoring against opposing opinions and a tangential style of dialogue influenced by the asynchronous and anonymous nature of communication. The YouTube medium shaped but did not determine the message, as obscenity and racist content in the target video from the eliciting public figure influenced the subsequent degree of obscenity and hostility in the responses. A third corpus that examined responses to our own research on race talk presented on a news website (stuff.co.nz) underlined this point by engendering a dramatically different response to the same subject, retaining the tangential style of communication, but with little to no obscenity. A framework to understand race talk as a function of both medium and context effects is proposed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Indigenous peoples in the 21st century colonial contexts face many challenges, not least of which is the struggle to retain cultural identity, beliefs, knowledge and traditions. While Western psychological theories offer insights into how identities are formed, there is a need for models of cultural reintegration and identity development that recognise colonial histories and realities and affirm indigenous aspirations. The purpose of this article is to explore how Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) negotiate Māori identities in the 21st century. Māori students and their family members were interviewed about their experiences at a state secondary school, and a thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to produce a framework of indigenous identity development. Within this framework, four identity states that correspond to stages in Māori creation narratives are identified, and the pōwhiri (Māori welcome ceremony) is used as a metaphor for Māori cultural reintegration and identity development. ...

Indigenous psychology as a global movement includes First Nations people who were colonised and live today as minorities amidst European majorities in their homelands. This creates the imperative for a psychology of self-determination and cultural healing. The six articles in this Special Issue (SI) articulate different strands of such a First Nations psychology; they are grounded in a liberation psychology of protest, woven together with less confrontational forms of emancipation involving the construction of alternative identity spaces. The articles employ theories and practice that can be grouped into two themes: (i) psychological resistance and endurance and (ii) social relations for psychological creativity and generativity. Based on (i), two articles in this SI develop a historical trauma paradigm for First Nations people to narrate psychological trauma as the product of intergenerational ‘soul wounds’ inflicted by colonisation, which require empowering collective action. Based on (ii), the remainin...

Moral Foundations Theory posits five distinct foundations of morality: Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity, In-group/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity. In combination, this should yield between four-to-six moral signatures—distinct combinations or patterns of support for these aspects of morality. We extend previous research by examining the replicability of these moral signatures in a New Zealand-based national sample (n = 3,635). Latent Profile Analysis identified four distinct moral signatures: Individuators, Moderates, Neutrals, and High Moralists. We integrate these moral signatures within the Dual Process Model (DPM) framework and show that Social Dominance Orientation predicts membership in the Neutral moral signature (moderate/lukewarm support for multiple moral foundations); whereas Right-Wing Authoritarianism predicts membership in the High Moralist signature (undifferentiated high support across moral foundations). These findings were observed controlling for Big-Six personality and various demographics. Thus, the authoritarian and dominance-based motives identified by the DPM independently predict categorical differences in the signatures people use to judge morality.

Urologists and gynecologists manage most of the patients with female pelvic floor disorders. However, lack of a single focused approach among these two disciplines and other related fields may hinder advances in clinical care and research. Herein, along with describing the background of birth of the new subspeciality, we present a practical approach by which we established an integrated model of care and discovery for FPFD at our institution. With the recent approval of this subspeciality by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), it is plausible that other institutions would wish to initiate similar steps toward establishment of an integrated model of care for FPFD, and hence move this new subspecialty to its new frontiers.

Primary ovarian insufficiency is a condition that represents impaired ovarian function on a continuum with intermittent ovulation. This condition commonly leads to premature menopause, defined as cessation of ovulation prior to the age of 40 years. Because there are potential immediate and long-term consequences of hypoestrogenism, a timely diagnosis is invaluable. This comprehensive review will discuss identifiable causes for primary ovarian insufficiency, including genetic disorders and metabolic abnormalities, as well as review current strategies for diagnosis, evaluation, and management of women with this condition.

The object of this retrospective cohort study was to determine if hCG levels correlate with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) risk after adjustment for other risk factors during in vitro fertilization (IVF). We measured serum hCG approximately 12 h after hCG trigger in women undergoing 406 cycles of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation for IVF between June 2006 and December 2009. Serum hCG levels were measured 12 h after trigger. Bivariate logistic regression was used to assess the association between patient and cycle characteristics and OHSS. In our series, mild to moderate OHSS occurred in 9% (38/406), and severe OHSS diagnosed in 1.5% (6/406) of IVF cycles. OHSS risk was increased in younger women (30 years old: adjusted odds ratio: aOR 2.46, 95% confidence interval: CI 1.14-5.34), increased number of oocytes (11-20: aOR 6.79, 95% CI 1.97-23.40;20: aOR 17.55, 95% CI 4.84-63.70), and increase E2 levels (≥3,000 pg/mL: aOR 2.59, 95% CI 1.33-5.05), but was unrelated to hCG level (100-200 IU/L: aOR 1.53, 95% CI 0.60-3.91; ≥200 IU/L: aOR 1.42 95% CI 0.48-4.20). These results indicate that OHSS risk during IVF is unrelated to serum hCG level measured approximately 12 h after trigger.

Technological advancement and the quantum leap in global trade had enabled many countries to enter an era of multiculturalism where intergroup contact with members of another ethno-cultural community is the norm rather than the exception. While this phase of economic development is considered progressive by many, it is also regarded as a perilous stage in nation building. Immigration, acculturation, and intergroup tensions will form the nexus of all future contestations with the various social groups negotiating with and/or vying against one another for political rights and status. At the same time, the notion of culture has become increasingly blurred given the multiplicity and interwoven nature of social identity arising from the transnational human movement and the transmission of values. With these considerations in mind, this chapter explores and extrapolates the emerging fabric of multiculturalism across various continents using a historical, socio-political, and psychological lens. Contemporary acculturation and intergroup frameworks are re-visited with the aim to discover new theoretical insights, while keeping in mind the possible trajectory of multiculturalism and how diversity will be managed in the decades to come.

Societal changes involving power reversal may pose challenges to system justification by a subordinate minority group that had previously held a more privileged position. Derived from originally exploratory qualitative investigation, this paper presents an account of endorsement of justifying the status quo versus the voicing relative deprivation in the context of post-Soviet Estonia. Experiences of alternative societal arrangements in history were actively deployed by (minority ethnic) Estonian Russians to generate temporal comparisons with the past as a cognitive alternative to the present status quo and give voice to experiences of relative deprivation. A struggle for positive social identity was interpreted to motivate Estonian Russians to mobilize the past as a cognitive alternative to delegitimize the status quo. By contrast, Russians were portrayed as invaders, and the Soviet past was represented as unjust by (the majority ethnic) Estonians, whereas the present system was depicted as fair and equitable. Mutually, polemical representations of history and narratives of identity provide the lenses through which the legitimacy of new societal arrangements following the major social change is interpreted. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

While Islamist forms of terrorism have received a great deal of attention from scholars, insider accounts by indigenous scholars are still under-represented. This Special Issue of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology brings together three articles on religious terrorism and sacred violence in Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic state. They bring together qualitative methods, including interviews with terrorist members of KOMPAK and Jemaah Islamiyah (including the Bali Bombers), with quantitative methods using structural equation modelling to explain a national representative sample's attitudes towards sacred violence. The articles converge towards an indigenous theory of Islamist terrorism for Indonesia involving three steps: (i) existential threat (triggered by violence inflicted on Muslims, nationally or internationally, and perceptions of the impurity of the secular Indonesian government), (ii) self-categorization of the world into infidels and believers (thus arguing that the current situation is a state of war where violence against non-combatants is justified), and (iii) jihadi ideology as the trigger for turning existential threat into religious violence. It is the interpretation of scripture offered by trusted leaders, often reinforced by oaths of obedience, rather than scripture itself that fuels the indigenous psychology of violent (lesser) jihad presented here.

The study investigates intergroup forgiveness and its antecedents in the context of post World War II in Asia and Europe. An integrative social psychological and social representation of history and identity theoretical framework was used in which it is proposed that the societal context influences intergroup forgiveness of formerly victimized societies. Data was collected from 1197 university students from mainland China, Taiwan, the Philippines, France, Russia and Poland. ANOVAs show significant differences across societies. Mainland Chinese participants were less forgiving than all other participants. We examined two new variables contributing to explain variations in intergroup forgiveness: historical closure and perceived costs of granting forgiveness. Multiple hierarchical regressions and cross-level operator analyses showed that historical and political contexts are significant contributors in the intergroup forgiveness process. The importance of accounting for and the necessity to extend the scope of research regarding the political and historical context in which formerly victimized societies are embedded is highlighted.

A theory of the historical anchoring and mobilization of political attitudes is proposed, arguing that culture-specific symbols, configured by historical charters, are an important resource in defining nationhood and legitimizing public opinion in a way that makes some political attitudes difficult to change. Five studies in New Zealand and Taiwan using diverse methods converged to show that historical events with “charter status” have an additive effect in explaining variance in political attitudes regarding biculturalism in New Zealand and independence in Taiwan even after controlling for the effects of Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, relevant social identities, and collective guilt. Field and lab experiments showed that the impact of historical symbols did not depend on the mobilization of social identity (e.g., increasing mean scores and indirect effects), but the historical anchoring of political attitudes in representations was resistant to change. Manipulations of the salience of historical events changed levels of social identification, but did not change mean levels of support for New Zealand biculturalism or Taiwanese independence. Even an intense and immersive pretest/posttest design taking high school students on a national museum tour failed to change attitudes towards biculturalism in New Zealand.

We apply latent class analysis (LCA) to build typologies of response profiles underlying variation in attitudes. LCA is directly suited for identifying categories of people who have distinct representational profiles, that is, discretely measureable patterns of attitudes that are bound together by a common system of interpretation used by the group to make sense of and communicate about a social object within a social context. This novel application extends social representations theory and provides a way to simultaneously examine the relevant content of important representations and their prevalence across a priori social categories and demographics within a given society. We identify four distinct representational profiles underlying bicultural policy attitudes in a nationally representative New Zealand sample (N = 6150). We map the prevalence of these four profiles across the population, show how they vary demographically across indicators of social class, immigration status, and ethnicity, and predict distinct patterns of voting behavior, political party support, social identification, and in-group and out-group attitudes. Guidelines for the use of LCA in the study of social representations are discussed, including a three-step model of the following: (i) profile prediction and derivation; (ii) profile validation; and (iii) prevalence mapping of profile distributions across strata within the population. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Motivation for Ethno-cultural Continuity (MEC) scale was developed to capture the agency of minority individuals in the long-term acculturation of their group and their dedication to cultural persistence over many generations. Study 1 presents the construction and validation of a pilot MEC scale, an 18-item unifactorial measure demonstrating good reliability (α = 0.95), convergent validity via its significant correlations with Collective Self-Esteem ( r = 0.67), Perceived Collective Continuity ( r = 0.54), Perceived Group Entitativity ( r = 0.32), and discriminant validity in that it was unrelated to attitudes toward Assimilation ( r = -.10, ns). Study 2 confirmed the structural equivalence of the final 10-item MEC scale and examined its prevalence and function across samples of New Zealand Jews, Māori, and Chinese ( n = 311). Good scale reliability was found across cultures (α = 0.94 to 0.95). As expected, higher values were found among Jews and Māori than Chinese. Together with traditional ethnocentric predictors, MEC predicted intentions for endogamy and in turn selective dating for Jews and Māori, but not for Chinese. Results are interpreted in terms of existential uncertainty experienced by “small peoples” and the impact of collective interests on individual behavior.

Colonization and decolonization are theorized at the intersection of Critical Junctures Theory and Power Basis Theory. This framework allows human agency to be conceptualized at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels, where individuals act on behalf of collectives. Their actions decide whether critical junctures in history (moments of potential for substantive change) result in continuity (no change), anchoring (continuity amid change with new elements), or rupture. We apply this framework to European colonization of the world, which is the temporal scene for contemporary social justice. Several critical junctures in New Zealand history are analyzed as part of its historical trajectory and narrated through changes in its symbology (system of meaning) and technology of state, as well as the identity space it encompasses (indigenous Māori and British colonizers). The impact of this historical trajectory on the social structure of New Zealand, including its national identity and government, is considered and connected to the overarching theoretical framework.

Research conducted in Western cultural contexts has discovered that people are more intolerant of moral than demographic diversity, prefer greater social and physical distance from morally dissimilar others, and actively discriminate against those who do not share their moral attitudes. The goal of the current work was to test whether (a) these findings generalize across cultural contexts and (b) similar patterns would emerge with not only social but also political intolerance. Strength of moral conviction associated with participants’ most important issue was associated with higher and similar levels of social intolerance of attitudinally dissimilar others in both China and the United States but was only related to political intolerance in China. These results demonstrate that moral mandate effects are not unique to highly individualized cultural contexts and reveal a possible boundary condition on the links between moral conviction and intolerance. Implications are discussed.

Two sets of concerns were expressed in commentary about Liu & Sibley’s (2012) article on self-sacrifice in the face of global warming. Statistical issues can be addressed with a better understanding of Multilevel Random Coefficient Models. We hold that in accord with the theory of planned behavior, it is more likely that beliefs about the importance of global warming predict intentions for willingness to make sacrifices rather than the reverse, and that given this presumed causal direction, the strength of this effect is moderated by cross-national differences on the human development index. Conceptually, we agree that measuring proenvironmental action in accord with self-interest and/or requiring greater effort but not self-sacrifice would provide a more complete picture. There were, broadly speaking, two sets of concerns expressed in the commentary on Liu and Sibley’s target article “Hope for the future: Understanding self-sacrifice in the face of global warming among young citizens of the world” (this issue). The ones concerning statistical analyses are addressed first, as they are relatively straightforward, and involve a better understanding of moderation effects in Multilevel Random Coefficient Models (MRCM). Conceptual issues are addressed subsequently, as they suggest important directions for future research and action.

aori/New Zealanders abroad Indigenous relationship development a b s t r a c t Qualitative research with 16 participants addressed the acculturation experiences of M ¯ aori and P ¯

To evaluate two doses of oral synthetic conjugated estrogens-B tablets compared with placebo on the frequency of awakenings resulting from nocturnal vasomotor symptoms in postmenopausal women over a 12-week treatment period.A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled multicenter study enrolled a total of 157 women who were experiencing daytime vasomotor symptoms and a minimum of at least three nocturnal awakenings per night as a result of hot flushes. Participants were evenly randomized to one of three treatment groups (0.3 mg, 0.625 mg, or matching placebo) and treated for up to 12 weeks. Subjective sleep quality also was assessed.Significantly greater reductions from baseline in the weekly mean frequency of awakenings resulting from hot flushes occurred for participants randomized to either synthetic conjugated estrogens-B dose relative to placebo (mean reductions, 3.55, P=.004, and 4.65, P.001 for 0.3 mg and 0.625 mg, respectively). In addition, a significantly greater proportion of participants at either estrogen dose had complete elimination of nocturnal awakenings (36.5% for 0.3 mg, 34% for 0.625 mg compared with 9.8% for placebo; P ≤.002) with a general finding of improved sleep based on actigraphy data. No differences were observed in measures of sleep quality or daytime sleepiness.In this symptomatic postmenopausal population of women experiencing sleep disruption resulting from nocturnal vasomotor symptoms, a daily dose of synthetic conjugated estrogens-B as low as 0.3 mg appears to be effective in treating nocturnal hot flushes that lead to unwanted awakenings.ClinicalTrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00592839.

Over the past 3 decades, compounds called selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) have been developed that block the estrogen receptor in some tissues (estrogen receptor antagonists) or stimulate the estrogen receptor in other tissues (estrogen receptor agonists). This Practice Pearl focuses on SERMs that clinicians can use for menopausal patients.

We study the following semilinear impulsive differential equation with delay: u ′ ( t ) + A u ( t ) = f ( t , u ( t ) , u t ) , t > 0 , t ≠ t i , u ( s ) = ϕ ( s ) , s ∈ [ − r , 0 ] , Δ u ( t i ) = I i ( u ( t i ) ) , i = 1 , 2 , … , 0 t 1 t 2 ⋯ ∞ , in a Banach space ( X , ‖ ⋅ ‖ ) with an unbounded operator A , where r > 0 is a constant and u t ( s ) = u ( t + s ) , s ∈ [ − r , 0 ] . Here, Δ u ( t i ) = u ( t i + ) − u ( t i − ) constitutes an impulsive condition, which can be used to model more physical phenomena than the traditional initial value problems. We assume that f ( t , u , w ) is T -periodic in t and then prove with some compactness conditions that if solutions of the equation are ultimately bounded, then the differential equation has a T -periodic solution. The new results obtained here extend some results in this area for differential equations without impulsive conditions or without delays.

Using a dyadic game theory paradigm, three experiments on the social dilemma of trust were conducted over the Internet in real time, involving real money. It was predicted and found that in-group favouritism in trusting behaviour was contingent on historical relationships between societies. In the China–Japan experiment, mainland Chinese but not Japanese trusted and made fair allocations to in-group members more than out-group members, and out-group trust was best predicted by positive stereotypes of the out-group for Chinese and identity for Japanese. In the China–Taiwan experiment, Taiwanese but not Mainland Chinese trusted in-group members more than out-group members, and in-group trust for Taiwanese was best predicted by perceptions of current realistic threats. In the Taiwan–Japan experiment, there were slight in-group favouring tendencies in trust, and positive stereotypes of the out-group were the best predictors of out-group trust. Japanese were unique in not displaying in-group favouring behaviour at all, whereas both Chinese and Taiwanese were context specific in their in-group favouritism. Stereotypes, social identities, perceptions of realistic threat, and historical anger made significant contributions to predicting trusting behaviour, but overall these survey measures only accounted for small and inconsistent amounts of variance across the three experiments.

The failure of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit to produce a greenhouse gas emissions accord highlights the fact that consensus and expertise regarding the physical science of climate change exceeds the political science of changing human factors. We examined whether national differences in economic factors shape the extent to which perceptions of global warming are linked to self-reported intentions to make self-sacrifices to help protect the environment (N = 6,651 university students) in developing and developed nations (N = 34 nations). Perceptions of the importance of global warming predicted self-reported willingness to make sacrifices to help protect the environment, and this association was more pronounced in nations with a higher Human Development Index (HDI). There may be hope for the future, to the extent that young people in developed countries are prepared to match their convictions and intentions to sacrifice for the environment with action.

The stories of history tend to favor dominant groups. Two longitudinal studies indicated that ideologies negating historical injustice experienced by Māori (the indigenous peoples of New Zealand) predicted increased opposition toward social policies promoting material reparation among New Zealand European undergraduates. Historical negation was, in turn, predicted by right-wing authoritarianism (Study 2). These findings suggest that the authoritarian motivation to protect the positive history of the in-group causes New Zealand Europeans to actively position historical injustices performed by earlier colonial generations as irrelevant. Positioning history in this fashion has important consequences for the mobilization of political attitudes and, in particular, opposition toward social and political policies relating to the distribution of resources and status within society.

A randomized, parallel-design study was conducted to determine the pharmacokinetic profile of synthetic conjugated estrogens A (SCE-A) vaginal cream (0.625 mg SCE-A/g) when administered at intervals (1 g once daily for 7 d, then twice weekly) over a 27-day period as compared with the pharmacokinetic profile of 0.3 mg SCE-A tablets administered once daily orally for 27 days.Blood samples were collected 48 hours before initial dosing for baseline levels and at multiple occasions during the study until 48 hours after final study dosing (day 29). Maximum plasma concentration, time to maximum plasma concentration (Tmax), and area under the curve from 0 to 24 hours were calculated at days 1, 7, and 27; in addition, area under the curve from 0 to 48 hours was calculated at days 7 and 27, and area under the curve weekly (AUCweekly) values were calculated for both groups. For purposes of comparison, ratios of AUCweekly values for vaginal cream and oral tablets were analyzed.Compared with an oral daily dose of 0.3 mg SCE-A, the steady-state systemic exposure from vaginal cream application was considerably less, with the cream-to-oral ratio being 0.45 for baseline-adjusted (BA) unconjugated estradiol, 0.30 for BA unconjugated estrone, and 0.04 for unconjugated equilin (AUCweekly). At steady-state, the systemic blood levels of BA unconjugated estrone, BA unconjugated estradiol and unconjugated equilin were significantly lower in women who received biweekly application of 1 gm vaginal cream compared to women who took an oral daily dose of 0.3 mg SCE-A tablet.After intravaginal application of SCE-A vaginal cream, absorption of estrogens was lower compared with absorption after oral administration. At steady state, the systemic exposure of equilin, estradiol, and estrone was significantly lower after twice-weekly administration of 1 g SCE-A vaginal cream compared with that achieved with an oral daily dose of a 0.3 mg SCE-A tablet.

The problem of defining culture has exercised anthropologists but not cross‐cultural psychologists because psychological science is based on quantitative forms of empiricism where the validity of categorical boundaries is determined by their predictive utility. Furthermore, many indigenous psychologies have been allied to nation‐building projects in the developing world that choose to gloss over within state ethnic differences for the purposes of national strength and unity. Finally, Carl Martin Allwood’s target article “On the foundation of the indigenous psychologies” (2011, Social Epistemology 25 (1): 3–14) is grounded in western thinking about science that privileges analytical philosophy, particularly the importance of constructing definitional categories as the basis of its critique of indigenous psychologies. This is a limited basis for thinking about psychological science whose flaws have been exposed by highly visible critiques on analytical versus holistic thinking. From the point of view of Asi...

The three articles in this special edition of the Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology encompass a range of approaches within cross-cultural psychology. Adrian Furnham's (2011) culture shock shows how academic psychology can be applied to, and helps to inform a popular concept. John Berry's (2011) acculturation theory demonstrates how focused theory and empirical data can align with a national agenda. Anthony J. Marsella and Ann Marie Yamada's (2011) socioconstructionist critique of mainstream clinical psychology and psychiatric practices illustrate how epistemology and indigenous psychology can challenge institutional practices. They are united in rejecting a culture-blind psychology of the mainstream. They differ by referencing largely separate but nonetheless complementary literatures on cultures of relevance to the Pacific Rim region. Taken together, these three articles combine meaningfully to illustrate how Pacific Rim psychology might benefit from having (1) a definition of itself with Hawaii and the Pacific Island Nations as the centre and hub for the broader Pacific Rim that includes East Asia and the Western American seaboard; (2) a focus on action, particularly action research and its cyclical communication process of planning, action, evaluation and feedback; and (3) an interdisciplinary orientation where interconnectedness with such institutions as mass media, government, and clinical and psychiatric practices, as well as within psychology itself, underpin and inform research practice and policy.

New Zealanders' implicit projections of the national category differ dramatically from those of Americans and Australians. In these latter nations, research using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) indicates that the majority (White/European) group is privileged in automatic or nonconscious concepts of nationhood relative to other ethnic groups. In New Zealand, however, Whites/Europeans and Maori (the Indigenous peoples) are equally associated with cognitive representations of the nation. This difference has been attributed to the strong and consensual integration of Maori culture and identity with national identity. The present research provided a novel test of this argument by demonstrating, in a large undergraduate sample (N = 142), that self-rated opposition versus support for symbolic but not resource-specific aspects of bicultural social policy was associated with New Zealanders' generalized pro-European versus pro-Maori implicit ethnic-national associations (estimated using two IATs). This finding provides converging evidence suggesting that the unique pattern of ethnic-national associations observed in New Zealand owes its genesis to relatively consensual support for the incorporation of symbolic aspects of Maori culture: The ways in which groups are symbolically represented within a nation affects the extent to which they are automatically projected within the inclusive or national prototype. This in turn has important implications for promoting intergroup tolerance.

Background Falls are a serious and common problem among older adults. Low-tech, inexpensive, community-based fall prevention programs have been shown to be both effective and cost effective, however, these programs are not well-integrated into clinical practice. Research design We surveyed primary care providers at a convenience sample of two accountable care organizations in Massachusetts to assess their beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and practices relative to fall risk assessment and intervention for their older patients. Results Response rate was 71%. Providers’ beliefs about the efficacy of fall risk assessment and intervention were mixed. Eighty-seven percent believed that they could be effective in reducing fall risk among their older adult patients. Ninety-six percent believed that all older adults should be assessed for fall risk; and, 85% believed that this assessment would identify fall risk factors that could be modified. Nonetheless, only 52% believed that they had the expertise to conduct fall risk assessment and only 68% believed that assessing older adult patients for fall risk was the prevailing standard of practice among their peer providers. Although most providers believed it likely that an evidence-based program could reduce fall risk among their patients, only 14% were aware of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s fall risk assessment algorithm (STEADI Toolkit), and only 15% were familiar with Matter of Balance, the most widely disseminated community fall risk prevention program in Massachusetts. Discussion New strategies that more directly target providers are needed to accelerate integration of fall risk assessment and intervention into primary care practice.

In this note, we obtain a new multiplicative perturbation theorem for local $C$-regularized cosine function with a nondensely defined generator $A$. An application to an integrodifferential equation is given.

In recent decades many Assyrians have fled their homeland in Iraq to escape religious and ethnic persecution. This study explored how young Assyrian women in New Zealand manage and negotiate identity dilemmas in everyday situations. It was informed by 400 h of participatory action research-inspired ethnographic work with 60 young women (between 16 and 25 years) and 72 Assyrian adults (53 women and 19 men); six interviews and a series of five focus groups with young Assyrian women; four interviews with Assyrian parents and two interviews with teachers of Assyrian students. A thematic analysis was employed to analyse transcripts and field notes. Participants conveyed complex feelings about their attachment to Iraq, New Zealand and the Assyrian community and attempted to attain optimal inclusion in these in-groups by carefully positioning themselves in a manner that intercultural communication theorists describe as ‘mindful identity negotiation’ ( Ting-Toomey, 2005 ). This highlights the contested and negotiated nature of the acculturation process, which is rarely illustrated in quantitative studies focusing on acculturation orientations.

There has been considerable debate regarding whether Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) constitutes a global individual difference that predicts prejudice or is instead a product of self-categorization processes. Two studies addressed this issue by contrasting the predictive and discriminant validity of SDO and reworded SDO items assessing prescriptive attitudes toward inequality and dominance based on specific stratifications. Consistent with a global individual difference perspective, SDO predicted systematic between-person consistencies in attitudes toward inequality based on specific group-based stratifications. Moreover, SDO and specific stratification attitudes exerted reciprocal cross-lagged effects on one another over five months (Study 1, N = 252). These results indicate that SDO is partially derived from specific attitudes and experiences (a bottom-up effect), but once formed, SDO exerts a reciprocal (top-down) effect on specific attitudes and cognitions about group-based dominance across a range of stratifications. Cross-sectional analyses indicated that SDO also predicted generalized prejudice toward ethnic groups after controlling for ethnic stratification attitudes (Study 2, N = 138). Taken together, these results indicate that SDO reflects a global motivation to achieve group-based dominance that is partially determined by situational factors but not reducible to self-categorization processes associated with attitudes towards specific social groups or categories.

Se estudiaron las creencias sobre el contenido de la historia, el significado de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y la evaluación de eventos históricos en relación con una actitud favorable a la guerra. Los participantes fueron 1183 estudiantes universitarios de España, Portugal, Argentina, Brasil, Perú y Cabo Verde. Se encontraron cuatro grandes dimensiones en las representaciones sobre el pasado: la historia como proceso de progreso y dirigida por líderes; la historia compuesta por calamidades que se deben aceptar; la historia como violencia y catástrofes; y, la historia como carente de sentido. La prevalente visión positiva de la historia se asoció a una actitud favorable a luchar en una nueva guerra.

This paper considers how researchers can undertake culturally grounded participatory action research (PAR) with migrant and former refugee communities whose relational network, customs and social hierarchy are perceived to be under threat. It draws on learnings from a PAR-inspired ethnographic study with young Assyrian women, who experienced tension with the bottom-up, participant-centred and social change-oriented ideals of PAR. Participants preferred to discuss their experiences with the researcher and have their views publicized anonymously through a research report than to work with her on an action project to address the issues that they raised. The young women wanted adults in their community to understand their desire to adapt some Assyrian cultural norms so that they could ‘fit in’ better in New Zealand society, but feared they would be criticised if they conveyed this in a public way. This experience showed that it is important to ground tools and processes in participants’ own goals and sociocultural contexts, which may not always be immediately apparent. Projects that acknowledge and work with participants’ relational networks are more likely to be effective in communities whose social fabric and customs are perceived to be under threat than those that attempt to ‘mobilise’ a sub-group within it to achieve social change.